


Lineage

by Mirrorswars



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV), My Babysitter's A Vampire
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-10
Updated: 2020-04-02
Packaged: 2021-01-27 01:54:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21384151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mirrorswars/pseuds/Mirrorswars
Summary: Benjamin Weir is a dhampire who swore himself to protect people from the evil and demons’ magnet  that is Whitechapel and save some souls along the way, while having to fight his own nature.When he learns that something terrifying is brewing under the surface of the village, Ben is decided to do everything in his power to save the world. Even at the price of himself and his soul...
Relationships: Ethan Morgan/Benny Weir
Comments: 3
Kudos: 8





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> First fan fiction ever ! Yay ! What you must know, is that this story happens in the world of Buffy the vampire slayer and Angel, therefore Whitechapel is definitively over a Hellmouth, and Benny might meet some of the demons from these shows.
> 
> Thanks to spediciplier and Marianara -sauce for rereading me !

Chapter 1

Being a dhampyr irremediably lead to a burdensome life to Benjamin. As a part of two very different and antagonising worlds, he always felt like he was supposed to pick one of them, the supernatural or the plain human one, while feeling he didn’t belong in either. He was a vampire, and a human. A strange, incomprehensible mix of both of them, a sort of private practical joke of ancient forces, The powers-that-be, as his father called them.   
When his vampire side was kicking out, just like this morning in school, he could become a threat for all the humans around him. The hunger would kick at any time, the sound of his classmates’ blood flowing inside their bodies, the vibration of this delicious treat beating in their jugular like an exciting melody. He fixed his best friend’s throat, who was sat by his side during classes as usual, he felt it pulsating, it was tempting him, daring him, and mocking him that he never attempted anything in the last decade he’s known him.

‘’Go ahead, ‘’said the throat. ‘’ I dare you, it said. Why do you keep fighting what you are ?’’

What am I, he asked himself. How could a vampire and a human even Procreate ? 

‘’ BENNY’’, screamed someone next to him, “lunch time, let’s go, I don’t wanna stay in history class any longer. Canadian history is soooo boring.”

Ben jumped off his seat, confused for a moment to be ripped off from his daydream, and looked annoyingly at his friend. ‘’ Rory, how many times did I tell you not to call me Benny ? And shouldn’t you be a tiny bit concerned, as it’s your country ?’’

‘’Nah, nobody cares, it’s just blah blah war, blah blah. If wars weren’t as repetitive and all alike, I could be remotely interested. Or if Ms Cole just gave up talking in her monotone voice and make us watch a movie instead.’’

‘’ Speaking of boring and nobody cares, have you finished writing that English essay, for tomorrow ?’’

‘’Oh, that essay, for tomorrow ?’’, he responded in a laughing voice, ‘’ Yeah, I’m almost done’’

‘’Mm, what’s the topic’’, asked Ben concernedly, knowing way too well Rory’s habits in making any homework.

‘’Dude, I wrote like, 5 pages, what do you mean, do I have a topic ? I’m sure a topic will come to emerge to Mr Heiss when she’ll read me it at least one of them.’’

Ben took a deep breath, exasperated but slightly amused ‘’Wanna come to my house this evening to find yourself a topic ?’’

‘’Oh, what would I ever do without you’’, smiled Rory, battling his eyelashes at him.

Benjamin rolled eyes and started to think of a snarky response until the urge for blood resurfaced all of a sudden. He was compelled to rip off Rory’s throat right here, right now, in front of all the school and suck all of it until the last droplet. He suddenly didnt think nor care about killing his decade best friend.

‘’Hum, got to go to the toilet, go to the line, I’ll see you there’’ he whispered in a fake confident voice. He prayed silently that Rory didn’t noticed his uncomfortableness, and rushed to the toilets before his friend could open his mouth to respond.

After reaching the toilets, he checked if the stalls were empty, and sighed when he saw they were. He opened his backpack and grabbed a thermos that he urged to open with his trembling fingers, and drank half of its liquid as quick as he could. Man, pig blood was disgusting, even if it was what tasted the closest to human blood. Even the cinnamon and the nutmeg he put in didn’t remotely hide the undertone metallic taste of it, and still had the sensation of sucking a rusted nickel.

‘’ yeah, I’ve gotta ask the butcher to get me a different type of blood, even if it takes longer to be remotely satisfying’’, he thought.

His friend was already well in the queue when Ben got to the cantine, he was easy to notice, a blond boy who was agitating his arms when he saw him entering. He was like a giant yellow megaphone.

‘’Benny, they have pizza, the not disgusting, weird looking one ! Im getting you one, go get the broken table left before the jocks arrive !’’

The boy opened his mouth to tell Rory not to call him Benny again, then gave up. Sometimes talking to him was useless, as he had the memory of a salad. He urged to the table but didn’t see the hockey team coming behind him, and was pushed on the ground.

‘’Well, Weir, didn’t see us ? That good table is for people who actually are people in this school’’, laughed their captain, a living embodiment of what King Kong would look like if he decided to shave and to make this school his permanent habitat. Benjamin felt a bit of pity for him that he was, and would probably always be, a giant walking stereotype of the 20 years old guy whose pick was high school, and that the reality of aldulthood frightened so much ( that people would stop worship him) that he became stuck in a permanent Peter Pan- like state. Ben just rolled his eyes at him, he knew that trying to use basic English to these jocks would be a waste of time. Until he felt something from his bag pack. Something red and warm. Oh no. He touched his bag carefully, trying not to be seen. Oh no.

‘’ What’s the problem, Weir, got your periods early ?’’ , sneered King Kong.

The teenager jumped on his legs and urged to the toilet, pushing people on his way, ignoring Rory calling for him. Why was there so many people in this corridor at midday , he wondered panickly, and locked himself in a stale. His thermos was partially broken, the blood was spilled, and to his dismay, he imagined that most of the people in the cantine probably have seen it. Best hoping, they thought it was tomato sauce, worst, he was a serial killer who liked to drink his victims’ blood. Or, worst of the worst, that he was a Dusk fan who loved to pretend he was an actual vampire and being in a coven with his friends in his mother’s basement. Ben hated these people the most because they were the ones who were the most keen to put themselves in danger and throw themselves in the claws of real vampires. The young dhampire felt compelled to save them from their own stupitidy and teenagers’ fantasies and had to intervienne several times to stab all the blood suckers in the heart. These fans might have been the ultimate representation of any Darwinian theory, as they were begging to be thrown out of evolution.

Benny pushed away these ruminations, and settled on not to go to the rest of classes. He texted Rory that he felt sick, wrapped his bag in his jacket and hurried towards the exits, hugging the walls. He was remorseful not being able to tell what was up with him to his best friend, who knew everything about him excepted for his vampire lineage. Althought, how to explain you were half vampire, and that sometimes you might turn into a blood hungry monster and be ready to murder him on the spot ?

What now, go home ? No, he required informations from Dennis, his informant for the demonic world. He was supposed to meet him later this day, because he knew that something bad was going to happen. As White chapel was a beacon for supernatural, several people had disappeared from vampires or demon attacks, some that were founded just had two holes on their necks, some were never found.. And the baddest ones’ leftovers were too horrible to describe in details. Many had their head, skin or organs ripped appart. 

Ben texted Dennis to meet him in the usual place immediately, and rushed to the bad side of White Chapel, feeling slightly stupid with his bag under his arm dropping blood. Luckily for him, the roads were empty. He checked his pocket to see if the money to bribe Dennis wasnt covered with blood.’’ Ugh, goodbye, few dollars left of Barmitzvah, he thought, I gotta save the world, and Dennis asks me more and more money the more dangerous it becomes for him’’.

Benjamin hesitated one last time before penetrating the dark alley where he was meeting the informant, took a dagger he was hiding in his jeans and one last breath.

‘’ Dennis is inoffensive, most of the time, even with the spikes he has on his head and elbows. I just hope I won’t meet something else on the way’’, he murmured to himself, while the alley was enveloping him.


	2. Chapter 2

The yound dhampire waited for about 20 min before glimpsing his informant’s glowing yellow eyes, followed by his long and red spikes on his head, to finally fully reveal himself and his green scaly skin. 

‘’ Eh, Dennis. Got anything worth those hundred dollars ?’’

The demon looked around him, squeamish, for an invisible threat to jump out of the shadows and beat him up for snitching them out. 

‘’Dennis. You shouldn’t be more afraid that something will lurk out the shadows and kill you than what I’m going to do to you if you wasted my time’’, said Ben, massaging his temples. He didn’t really mean it, he wouldn’t beat up somebody so inoffensive and pathetic as him, but sometimes threat and tough love was the only way to grab his attention.

‘’There is a rumour down there. There is some demons plotting. They are even forming a sort of secret society and want to return the world to its former glory and purity, before humans started to crawl and plague the planet with their filth. Well, quoting here’’ responded the demon, when he saw Ben’s reprobating look at his last sentence.

‘’And ?”’

‘’That’s all I know’’ responded the demon, lowering his voice when he heard noise coming from a bin behind him.

‘’Are you kidding ?’’ almost screamed the teenager ‘’ that’s not an information worth a hundred dollars, not even half of it !”

Dennis panicked for a moment at the idea that this human wasn’t going to pay him. Him who was risking his freaking life to give him infos ! He who was doing everything he could to survive in this stupid, stinky place ! Ben walked towards him, the informant feared he was going to beat him himself. What if he was going to touch his precious spikes ?

‘’ Listen. There is a bar where you can get more. It’s called The Red Marianne, next to the town’s exit and cemetery. The boss, Willy, mostly serves demons and vampires, the worst scum of them, he must have heard something from a drunk customer. If somebody knows something about it, it’s Willy. Now pay me, I risk my life to meet you, you know ? You think it’s all fun and games for me ? ‘’

Benjamin gave him 60 dollars, which is what he felt what was worth of this tip, wrote the address of the bar and walked back home to prepare himself. Arrived at home, he plunged his backpack in cold water to remove the blood, then went grabbing a few weapons. A bottle of holy water, a stake, and of course, his dagger. He never adventured himself to the end of Whitechapel but did walk pass it twice. He used to think that it was desolated, but still was terrified of it, giving him a strange feeling as if Death had claimed it its territory. Althought not being particularly religious, he muttered a prayer to himself.

—————————————————————

Ben released his fangs and entered suspiciously in the Red Marianne, hoping that this Willy wasn’t going to ask him for money as well for an information. It looked and smelled absolutely filthy, as if something (and something probably did) die, the walls were covered by green and brown mould that looked older than him. A long trace of dry blood decorated the floor, that someone tried to wipe away but couldn’t remove completely, it was the only element that gave a pop of colour to this place. As it was a demon bar where was supposedly crawling the worst of Hell’s rejections, he knew that its owner wasn’t regarding at what kind of creature his clients were, as long as they were spending their bucks. Sat around a table were vampires and two demons, a Threraxe and a Plomirths, who had the reputation of being one of the most agressive ones, but were, luckily for him, too busy to empty pints after pints.

‘’Do not make eye contact with them, he thought, do not acknowledge them if you want to come out of this alive”. However, he felt their glances in his back, and fought himself not to shiver.

With a fake assertiveness, he pulled out a high chair and sat at the bar. ‘’ So, I’ve hear you’re the man to come to get a few informations, eh ?’’ 

Shit’, he thought, too assertive, not smooth, you dumbass.

The waiter, who Benjamin supposed was Willy, looked at him up and down, and frowned.

‘’New in town ? ‘’

The man looked in his fifties, had a few moles popping around his bearded face and hairy arms, and looked really disinterested with everything. Also, not the kind of guy to make full sentences when he was greeting somebody, Ben guessed. Got it.

‘’You can say that,’’ Ben shivered, ‘’Heard you were the place to go for a good pint ‘’ and some infos, he thought. ‘’ what do ya got ?’’

Willy reached something under his bar, and put in front of him five big jars of, oh god-

‘’Blood, the best one you can find in town, 10 bucks for a glass’’, said Willy in a proud voice.

The smell was so delicious ! Being on a strict pig blood only was very constraining, but he didn’t want to become like one of the things that killed so many people from his school. Again. Kids his age... Classmates... Friends...Rory ! Thinking about his best friend made Ben snapped from this trance, and felt like he had to ask where this came from.

‘’It’s 100% human blood. From some kids who like to make a buck for every pint they give.’’

So this guy made 10 dollars for half a pint, that he got for basically nothing ? Benjamin had to admit to himself, he was kind of a selling genius. However, a genius would use his profit to make his bar a little less disgusting. The dhampire asked for a coke, that the barman served with his eyebrow raised the whole time, and checked Ben again suspiciously, but shrugged when the boy gave him twice the worth of his drink. 

‘’So, is there something I need to know about this town ?’’

‘’You ask a lot of questions, stranger’’, said a voice in his back, sending him a shiver down his spine.

‘’Just wanna know what king of place I’m getting into’’, said Ben, not turning to the creature speaking.

He heard a chair creaking and loud steps towards him, and suddenly a hand squeezed its claws into his shoulder.

‘’What kind of vampire doesn’t want a good glass of blood, anyway ?’’

‘The same who just wants to sit at a bar without having strangers bothering him’’, responded Benjamin who was growing more and more impatient and was forgetting about subtility, composure or even avoiding violence the furthest he felt from getting what he wanted.

‘Hey, we’re just friendly here, just making friends’’, said the vampire, digging further in his flesh. ‘’Have a shot on me.’’

He made a gesture to Willy who poured a glass of blood and pushed it in front of the dhampire.

Benjamin gave the man a defying look, before emptying it in one shot. It was amazing. The boy tasted its warmth and sweetness tickling and caressing his throat. He suddenly felt nauseated and disgusting for liking it so much. It was his addiction to blood that caused so many deaths and lead his father to expatriate him to Canada, to live with his grandmother who was an Earth priest and the only one who could help him to calm his urges. Benjamin forced himself to remember the people he took the life from, that what was his love of human blood led to. He couldn’t let the chance of even thinking about the pleasure of tasting it if he didn’t want to crack up. 

‘’Happy ?’’ he said, giving the vampire a defying glaze.

‘I like you stranger, do you have a name ?’’

‘’It’s, hum... Call me Sauron ?’’ hesitated the teenager, feeling stupid at the moment these words came out his mouth.

‘’Well, Sauron, I’m Mortas, this is Maleficia, Lucifera, Moldark and Quintus’’ he said, pointing respectively a blond vampire with ridiculous pink strands of hair and a style that told Ben she had been sired in the early 80s, a brown vampire girl with a shaved head, a Threraxe with its distinctive yellow eyed tentacles popping out its jaw, and the Plomirth with long red fangs. They were all too drunk to even bother to greet him or move an inch from their chairs.

Yeah,some did vampires did love tacky surnames, Benjamin did often wondered why.

‘’You in a gang ? Wanna join the coolest one in town ?

‘’Nah,‘ responded Ben, ‘’ I like being on my own. If I change my mind, I know where to find you.’’

Mortas didn’t insist but grumble about the boy being so uncool while going back to his seat.

The dhampire turned towards the barman.

‘’Speak. Now. I want infos before I make you my dinner. Have you heard of a demon secret society ?’’

Willy took a look behind the boy, looking scared, and murmured :

‘’ Yeah, it’s called the Blood syndicate. I know that they have around a dozen of members and a lot of associates down here who won’t hesitate to battle tooth and nail to realise their big project. I know they have to realise a few rituals to open the mouth of Hell, including human sacrifices, open some demonic tombs of their most ancient and powerful beings. When they finish it, I doubt they will leave any of us humans alive, right ?’’  
The man clenched his hands around the glass he was drying, a few tears dropped on the counter.

‘No... They will not’’, responded Benjamin, before leaving the bar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can’t wait to hear your returns !


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... It’s been a while. I re read the first chapters, and I think they’re kinda meh, I repeat myself a lot, so I might rewrite them. If you have any advice, don’t hesitate !

The rest of the week was tedious for Benjamin Weir. Even Rory and his jokes, via memes he would create and send him couldn’t cheer him up, as the situation of an incoming end of the world made him feel bleak. Or Rory’s sense of humour was really bad, that was a possibility as well. 

The teen threw the last of his grandmother’s books on the floor, which was already blanketed by her entire library’s content, and made a dozen of disorganised post-its with some random notes on them fly across the living room. He spent every day of the week désespéraly looking through every spell and demonology book, every scroll and grimorium that she ever wrote or acquired, read each sentence multiple times, hoping there was even some secret metaphor in the tiniest line about a secret society. Ben let a frustrated growl come out of his mouth so loudly that he feared he had woken his grandmother up, which he didn’t, then went back to the first grimorium he read, the book of somebody called Abramelin. It was more about rituals to summon and control good and evil spirits, like demons, with full protection and blessing from God. He ripped off the last post it of its block, wrote with a trembling and very much in pain hand,

« COULD BECOME VERY USEFUL IN THE FUTURE »

God’s protection would definitely be useful indeed, if an army of demons were to try to destroy every living human in existence. Not that Benny was really a believer, he saw enough reasons and evidence of humans’ suffering in the news to consider that either God didn’t exist, didn’t care, or was just a sociopath getting kicks from watching them suffering. To even tell the truth, he only agreed to a Barmitzva because he was told that there traditionally would be cake. He just hoped that if God indeed existed, as this time his whole creation was in danger, who knew, it could make him come out of his lethargy or assholeness for a brief moment. That was his last stupid resort, hoping for help from someone he wasn’t even sure to believe in.  
He anxiously took the Star of David out of his sweater, and fiddled with every branch several times. It was a gift from his dad, the only thing he said he had left from his father. That he killed the day he became a vampire. What a great reminder to have kept and given to your son from the man you murdered, he thought.   
Benjamin got up, went to the kitchen and made himself toast with mozzarella, ham, peanut butter and chocolate, his favourite. He turned on his phone, which he didn’t check for the past couple of days, and saw with shame the dozen of messages from Rory. He promised to help with his homework this weekend, to hopefully change his grades from a series of Ds to a least C+ (upper than that would be hoping for a miracle), he totally forgot ! Ben wrote 5 texts of apologies, during each he prayed Rory wasn’t mad at him. Maybe it wasn’t too late to go to his place, beg him for forgiveness and do those dreaded work. What time was it ? He almost spit his toast in shock when he saw it was almost 4 am. But the next day was Sunday, maybe if they spent the entire day... They could change his grades to a D+, which wasn’t that mediocre, he tried to convince himself.

—————

Benjamin barely slept, between the fear of the incoming war and his guilt over forgetting Rory, which compared to the first one seemed trivial, but he didn’t want to lose his only friend. He knew that he wouldn’t be up before midday, so he sat at his desk, wrote a few notes for Rory’s essay, trying to find a theme. How about « Why the guy from Moby Dick is an idiot who should stop obsessing over a damn animal who does not know better ? » Meh. « Why Mr Darcy and Elizabeth should not end up together, because the whole damn book tell us they would be an ego fest colliding ? » Too long, and he wasn’t sure that Rory read the book past the second sentence or even opened it. Plus, that was maybe the point, the more he thought about it.  
Ben growled an threw his pencil across his room. 

« Ben ? »

He saw his grandma pop her head at his door.

« I’m okay, Grandma. I’m trying to work on an English essay. »

Evelyn didn’t believe a second he was okay, judging by the dark bags under his eyes, his paleness, his messy hair. She was so concerned that she didn’t scream at him for the mess he did downstairs. She just quietly approached her grandson and stroke her hand lovingly in his hair. The boy closed his eyes, enjoying the proximity and the confort.

« Did you find anything about the secret society ? »  
« I’ve called a few of my Earth priests friends, they didn’t know anything about a Blood syndicate. »

The teen put his face in his hands, trying to hide his frustration, anger and fear. He didn’t want her to see him crying, which he knew was going to happen at any second now. He didn’t want her to know there maybe wasn’t any hope.

« How about you take a day off ? Go out. Go see Rory. Eat a pizza and watch a film together. On me », she said, putting a 10 dollars note on the desk. « Don’t be too hard on yourself. You’re trying hard, and we will find a solution. And I am not taking no for an answer. ».

The boy smiled, agreed, figured Rory was probably up by know and dragged himself to his place. Luckily, his friend didn’t hold a grudge, especially when Ben presented him a 6 inches bucket of pop corn as apology.

——————-

Benjamin tried to make his way towards the bar, pushing the hord of happy and drunk clubbers as softly as possible with his elbows, and took a deep breath once he arrived destination. The Bronze was the only LGBT club in miles around, leading to attract half of the nearby counties every weekend. During those parties, it was difficult to move or to hear anyone, which often made the boy wonder why anyone would try to hookup here. He proposed Rory to come with him and have fun, but he declined, making Ben speculate if he was afraid to get hit on.  
He waved to the bartender, asked for a beer and received a coke after the man scrutinised Benjamin and decided he was way underaged. Eh, at least he tried, which was at least the tenth attempt with the tenth and last bartender.  
Each was as much a failure as the efforts to approach a guy or girl he deemed cute. Most of them dissected him with their eyes and brushed him off for someone more muscular or better styled. Each time he was coming in the club, he was feeling very much alone, despise been surrounded by what he felt sometimes was half of Ontario. Nowadays he came only for the live music, and gave up on finding a date. Unfortunately, tonight the band was rather mediocre, and seemed to have been accepted to play by the owner only because they were beautiful eye candy.  
He stepped out of the club, looked around and pulled out his blood flask from his pocket, poured a bit in his coke and took a sip. It was disgusting. Then, he decided to go back to hunting.

———

Ben walked around the cemetery, waiting to have a vampire to put his hands on, or rather a stake through. Come on, he thought, I need the distraction. I need the fun, and to punch somebody.

Crrrac !

The boy hid behind the nearest tree, then thought how stupid it was to hide, when he was supposed to be the hunter, not the hunted. He walked towards the noise, and noticed it was like somebody was digging. Not like when a vampire was digging his way out of his coffin, no, like if something was digging using a shovel. It could not be a vampire, as they préféred fresh blood, from someone very much alive. 

Crack ! 

The thing was breaking the coffin with his shovel and looking for something Ben couldn’t see.  
He raised his arm and jumped towards it. The grave robber was covered in dirt and wet leaves, but his face was in the dark and the dhampire couldn’t see it, but when the robber straighten up, he saw with horror what he was holding in his hand : it was covered in blood, but he could see the mushroom shaped, grayish structure to what was still attached a long and thin... Oh no.

What he was holding was a human brain, that the grave robber vigorously slammed in his mouth and chewed while letting noises of pleasure and comtempt. 

« What the fuck are you ?? » Benjamin shouted, refraining a gag.

The robber jumped and turned towards him. It was a boy ! A seemingly normal one of his age excepted for the cannibalism.

« I’m not going to hurt you, it said. Believe me, you can see I only eat the dead. »  
« How can I believe you, you eat bra— Wait, are you a freaking zombie ?? I thought that was just a cliche from talentless filmmakers who wanna grab a few bucks ! »  
« Well, thanks, laughed the guy. I assure you I exist and not a cliche like in those Walking dead stuff »

When Ben scrutinised him, he saw he was pale, with dark hair and really thin.

‘ I’m Ethan.’  
« Benjamin », he said, reluctantly.  
« What the hell are you even doing with a pike in the middle of the forest ? Are you another of those obsessive Dusk fans ? »

Benjamin stayed silent, even if he didn’t liked to be called a Dusk fan, approached the zombie carefully, his arm up with his pike.

« You know that pike ain’t gonna do anything to me, right ? », said the zombie, letting out a laugh.

« Excepted if it goes through your head »

The boy’s smile faded. 

« Why would you want to kill me ? I make no victims. This guy whose brain I ate very much died a long time ago, probably in a car crash, by seeing the mush of a body he was. »

Ben lowered his weapon in curiosity.

« Only dead ? You never killed anyone for their brains ? »

« Not in the past 10 years I’ve been a zombie. », responded Ethan. By the smell coming from your pocket, I get you’re not like, a normal person either ? »

« You can smell blood from there ? »

« Of course, 10 years a zombie, you get to detect blood from far. But why do you have a flask full with blood ? Don’t you vamps prefer biting people directly ? »

« Not a vampire, am a dhampire. That’s different. I only drink pig blood », Benjamin defended himself.

Ethan’s eyes widened in surprised. « That’s a thing ? I thought that was impossible. I thought when they became vampires, they became half dead and their wieners started to shoot blank !

Ben threw a disgusted look at him. « I do not wanna think about my dad’s wiener, thank you VERY MUCH, Ethan ».

Ethan smiled and proceeded to resume eating the brain under Benjamin’s repulsed eyes, finishing by sucking out the spinal like a damn spaghetti. He did not stop looking at Benny in curiosity the whole time.

« How are you not even surprised or scared of me, if you thought I was a vampire ? I would have ran away, even if I was... »  
he circled around Ethan with his finger. « That ».  
«’’ That’’ is well conserved for a half dead person, thank you very much. And I met a couple of vamps before, when I was living in Toronto. Turns out my blood do not smell and taste as good as a normal person. They just looked disgusted and left me alone. Some part in me found it a bit insulting.

Difficult to figure why they thought he smelled bad, Benjamin thought, if he usually crawled in mud and cadavers’s parts, and even ate the latest. But those beautiful brown eyes, and his laugh so warm it could make ice melt— oh Shut up, brain, don’t be an idiot ! He tightened his grip on his weapon.

« How did you even become a zombie ? Did a rabid guy bit you ? Did an evil government thingy made tests on you and make you turn ? Is there more like you ? », he rumbled, but then thought how cliche it was.

Ethan frowned. « You should really much stop watching Tv. Telling the truth, I don’t even know. It was duuring riots, like 10 years ago in 1992, I think. It was such a mess, people screaming and getting hurt. I didn’t see who scratched me. I wasn’t even participating, I was just trying to come back from school, like a damn idiot I tried to go through it ». The boy got out of the hole he dig and started to fill it back.

« In 1992 ? That was almost twenty years ago, dude, » said Benny while sitting down a grave. He was still holding his pike tightly in his hand, in case the zombie was lying, and had already analysed his surroundings if he had to escape. How could anyone trust a guy who was destroying graves and eating brains like a plate of spaghetti so casually ? if he finally decided to attack him, he needed to calculate how to pierce his brain completely with his only weapon, no mistakes allowed. But was he really going to attack ? He didn’t seemed very dangerous, just starving. 

The zombie looked surprised. « Already ? I guess it’s right what people say. Time becomes difficult to follow when you’re not aging like everybody else.

« Just like my dad, » Benny commented, « he became a vampire back during a battle, back in 18- something. He was a soldier fighting against Prussia. Even now, he forgets to call it Poland, and still calls it Prussia and rambles about those damn soldiers— but that’s hardly the same, when I think about it », said Ben, feeling dumb. He didn’t know why, but trying to prepare himself into a battle against this guy was hard to do. Somehow, with a look from him, his rational thinking and planning would go smudge and his brain would go ‘’bleh ‘’. He didn’t like to be that vulnerable again.

« Where did you get scratch ? What would happen if you didn’t eat brain for some time ?  
« Why so much questioning ? Ah, here you go, all done ! ».  
He threw aside the shovel.  
« That was a productive evening, wasn’t it ? Now will you put down that pike ? I told you I wasn’t gonna hurt you. If I did, I would have tried the second I saw you, like any good zombie would have done, wouldn’t it ? »  
« You got a point. But you’re still eating a person, that’s what making you bad in my book. »  
« So are you. Don’t try to make be think that the blood in your flask is vegan. »  
« That’s animal’s blood, from a butcher, not a human. »  
« Ah, but what’s a human but an animal ? »  
« Ok, smart guy . You’re going with philosophy now ? »  
« Eh, you eat from an animal that was already dead, so am I, but just happened to be a guy. I tried animal brain, every one of them that is buyable in a butcher shop. It can ease the hunger, but often not enough. I figured if I eat from a grave, it wouldn’t hurt anybody. How are we that different ? We just don’t want to hurt people. We’re both monsters trying to make the best of what we are and have. »

Benjamin judged his arguments, then decided to put the pike back in his pocket. He was right. Not all demons were evil, proof was him, his dad and his dad’s demon of a coworker and best friend, some just wanted to live on. It was just easy to expect the worst from people, wasn’t it ? But killing this guy ‘’just because he’s not a normal person’ regardless of his acts would make him a hypocrite. Wouldn’t it ? He and his dad did eat people in the past, and they’ve been trying to repent ever since. He was going to give Ethan the bénéfice of the doubt. Plus, he could become an ally, and that wouldn’t be superfluous.

« Where do you even live ? », asked Ben.

Ethan jiggled his head towards the edge of the town.

« I just moved in a small flat downtown. It’s calmer than in the big city. Will you show me around ? You’re the first friend I made here », he said, battling his eyes to Ben.

Ben let a small laugh come out. « You’re getting cocky. But we will see. Do you have a phone number ? »


End file.
